In the days of the great famine, when all men and animals on the land
were starving, the alligators and the fish in the river had plenty to
eat, and the parrots and bats were also well off for food. The parrot
used to fly off very early every morning with his family to an island
in the river where there were plenty of palm-trees, and return in
the evening carrying his bag of palm nuts with him. All the people
were very jealous of the parrot in consequence, and wanted to kill
him and all his family. The hare (Nchigga) was very curious to know
how it was that the parrot always managed to get food, so he went to
him pretending to be a great friend of his, but could never find him
at home in the daytime, so he went in the evening and met the parrot
returning home carrying his bag, full of palm nuts as usual. The hare
asked the parrot where he got all the palm nuts from, and said he would
like to go with him. But the parrot said that the hare could not go,
and that he was only able to take his own family to the place where the
palm nuts grew.
The hare then went home, but made up his mind to go with the parrot,
so that very night he hid himself in the parrot’s bag. At daylight the
parrot put his bag round his neck and flew off with his family to the
island. He then began to gather the palm nuts, and to fill up his bag.
Now the palm-tree where the parrot was overhung the river, and the
hare, thinking he would pay the parrot out for refusing to bring him,
made a hole in the bottom of the bag so that the nuts dropped through
into the water as fast as the parrot put them into the bag. When the
parrot began to eat some of the nuts, the hare eat some also, and when
the parrot dropped the kernel the hare dropped his at the same time
through the hole in the bag. The parrot did not notice this, as he
thought that some of his family were also eating close at hand, so he
continued to put nuts into the bag, but could not understand why it was
that the bag did not get full. At last the parrot thought there must be
a hole in the bag, so he looked inside and found the hare there.
Then the parrot said, “My friend, what are you doing in my bag? Did I
not tell you that I would not take you to the place where I got my food
from? You must have hidden yourself in my bag without my knowledge.” He
then pulled the hare out of the bag, and having placed him on the top
of the palm-tree, flew off to the next tree, where he was joined by the
rest of his family, to whom he related the way in which he had punished
the hare, and shortly afterwards they all flew home, leaving the hare
on the island.
The hare managed with some difficulty to climb down the tree, but when
he reached the ground he was afraid to cross over to the land from
the island, as he thought the alligators or big fish might catch him.
He looked all round the island for a place to make his house in, but
it was all wet, as the river was high; so the next day he determined
to swim across the river, and risk being eaten. But before the hare
started he threw some small bits of dried stick into the river and
watched the fish come up and look at them. When he saw that he was
bigger than the fish, he said, “They cannot eat me,” and without much
fear jumped into the water and began to swim across.
The fish came round the hare and saluted him, saying, “Go on your way
in peace.” Just as he got near the land, however, he came across a
large female alligator, who asked him where he came from and where he
was going. When he said that he was swimming from the island towards
the land the alligator caught him, saying, “I want you to do me a
service first, and then I will let you go.”
She then took the hare to her house at the bottom of the river, where
she introduced him to her husband, and said, “This man can paint our
children, and make them look nice to all people.” At this time the
alligators were grey-coloured without any markings, and had for some
time been wanting to change their colouring.
Then the hare said, “I see you have many young alligators here, and I
will paint them all for you, but you must not look at me while I am
doing it. I will paint one of your children every day and show it to
you, but you must first of all build me a house, into which you must
put all your children, with plenty of food and firewood.”
The next day the alligators built the house, and did everything the
hare told them, a small hole being left in the wall of the house so
that the hare could show the alligators each child as he painted it.
The hare then went into the house and shut the door carefully. That day
he painted the alligators’ eldest son with long-dark stripes across his
body, and when he had finished he held the young alligator up to the
hole for his parents to see, and asked them if they were satisfied.
The old alligators told the hare that he had painted their son very
well, and they were pleased. So the hare put the young alligator on the
ground and closed the hole.
That evening the hare killed one of the young alligators and eat it.
The next day he held up the alligator he had already painted to the
hole for the old ones to see, and then put it down again, closing the
hole as before. When night came he again killed another young alligator
and eat it. The same thing happened every night until the hare had
eaten all the young alligators except the one he had painted and showed
to the parents each morning.
The hare then told the alligators that he had finished painting all
their children, and wanted to go home, but he told them that they must
not go into the house until after he had gone, as if they did his ju-ju
would be broken and all the painting would be spoiled. He also asked
them to allow him to be rowed across the river by an iguana, who is
deaf and cannot hear anyone shouting.[6]
The alligators agreed to this, and told the iguana to bring his canoe
and paddle the hare across the river. They then gave the hare presents
of fish and yams, and said good-bye to him. The hare then got into the
canoe and pushed off, and the iguana commenced to paddle him over.
When they had gone a little distance the father alligator went to the
house where the hare had been, and when he looked in he found only
his eldest son who had been painted, so he asked him where the other
children were, and his son replied that the hare had eaten one of his
brothers or sisters every night until he was the only one left. When
the alligator heard this he was wild with rage, and went up the bank
and called to the iguana to bring the hare back; but as he was deaf,
the iguana took no notice. When the hare heard the alligator shouting
and waving from the bank, he attracted the iguana’s attention and made
him understand that the alligator was so pleased at the good work he
had done that he wished the iguana to row faster, so he paddled harder
than before.
Seeing that the canoe did not return, the alligator dived into the
river and swam after the canoe, but before he could catch it the
hare had jumped to the land and ran up the bank. The alligator then
scrambled up the bank to where the hare was sitting, and asked him
why he had killed and eaten his children, and told the hare he should
kill him. The hare acknowledged that he had done wrong, but asked the
alligator not to kill him at once, as his body was so small it would
not be worth eating. He then advised the alligator to dig a pit and put
sharp stakes, with their points upwards, in the bottom. The hare said,
“If you do this, and then throw me up in the air as high as you can, so
that my body will fall into the pit on the sharp stakes, then I shall
die in great pain, and in three days’ time my body will be much swollen
and will then be better worth eating.” The alligator thought this a
good plan, and agreed to what the hare said, so he dug a pit and put
the sharp sticks in the bottom. The alligator then threw the hare into
the air as high as he could, and he fell into the pit, but was careful
not to be caught on the sharp sticks. The hare then commenced to scream
with pain, pretending to be in great agony. So the alligator said,
“Now I have got you, you cunning hare!” and walked away to the river.
The alligator then swam home and told his wife, who was mourning her
children, of the revenge he had taken upon the hare.
The next morning he went to the pit to see if the hare had grown any
larger, but when he looked in he found that the hare had disappeared.
He then made enquiries from some other animals about the hare, and they
told him that he was alive and they had seen him running home.
When the hare got home, he went to the parrot and told him what had
happened to him, and warned the parrot that he should do his best to
kill him for leaving him on the palm-tree to the danger of his life,
unless for the future the parrot lived by the waterside, as that was
where he got his food from. Then the parrot was frightened, and moved
his house to the top of a high tree on the island. Ever since that time
the parrots have made their nests on high trees on islands, and when
they are flying high up in the air you can hear them laughing at the
hare, saying, “We are out of your reach, you cannot harm us now.” And
even at the present time you can see that the young alligators have
stripes across their bodies, but the skin of the old ones, which is
very rough, does not show the marks made by the hare, except on the
tail part.